DBZ Proverbs: The Hand and The Rose
by Philotas
Summary: A chance meeting between saiyan traditions and Goku's gluttony makes Vegeta do something he'd never thought he'd do. A G/V friendship fic.


**THE HAND AND THE ROSE**

**Summary**

Second in the "Proverbs from The World" series. After admitting to himself that Kakaroth is the better man, Vegeta unwillingly gives the younger saiyan a formal recognition of his value. Goku shows he can understand and appreciate.

**Genre, couples and rating**

Humor/General – Mentions of canon couples. Basically a Goku/Vegeta friendship fic. Rateable PG just to stay safe.

**Disclaimer**** and author's notes**

Nothing belongs to me, except the plot (if you'll forgive the overstatement!). I'm assuming, here, that saiyans are telepathic to a degree: not strictly canon, but not exactly false either. Not really satisfied with the title...

"_A bit of fragrance always clings to the ____hand__ that gives roses._" - Chinese proverb

Finding the rest of the house deserted, Son Goku headed for the main living room of Capsule Corp. in search of his friends. He'd wandered away from the barbecue party out of boredom once the food had run out, and had spent most of the afternoon with the animals on the Capsule Corp.'s premises. However, with the sun setting and a certain appetite returning, the recently revived saiyan headed back for the main building, feeling slightly guilty for walking out on his hosts and friends. Chichi was surely going to give him an ear-full once they were home.

The living room was dark, and most of the people who'd attended the party were sitting on the large sofas, watching a movie and munching on pop-corn or sandwiches. The film looked like one of those chick-flicks that made Bulma and Chichi sigh and go starry-eyed first, and lament their choice of husbands later. All the confirmation he needed on the point was the look of utter tedium painted on the face of the saiyan prince, sitting apart from everyone else and giving the oblivious television set a scowl that would have sent Majin Buu running for the hills.

Smiling to himself, Goku trotted to Vegeta's side and dropped to sit at his feet on the carpeted floor. The older saiyan looked at him with a mildly surprised expression, but otherwise did not comment on his choice of a seat.

'_You look bored, 'Geta_' Goku sent out telepathically, not to disturb the others.

'_Try to sit through this pain humans call enterteinment. I'd rather have tea and biscuits with freaking Freezer._'

Goku did his best not to laugh out loud. It cracked him up that the prince could actually snort telepathically. Communicating with their minds was something they did rarely, due to Vegeta's reticence, but it was a far cry more practical and direct that talking, even if they still formed words to convey their thoughts. It surely had a distinct advantage: Vegeta didn't insult him anywhere near as much as he did with regular speech.

'_Speaking of biscuits, I'm feeling sort of hungry, where can I get some sandwiches? I can never remember where Bulma's mom puts things._'

A mental roll of the eyes from the prince was followed by a virtual goofy grin from the younger saiyan.

'_I'd show you, but I made a bet with the Woman that I could sit through this for half an hour straight, and if I move I'll lose._'

'_What are the stakes?_'

'_None of your business, Kakaroth_' the prince replied, clearly implying that the promised reward was of the kind a man doesn't talk about.

'_I can get them myself, if you just..._'

'_No! If I have to sit through this, so do you. You've wandered off by yourself enough for one day. Your stomach can wait!_'

'_But 'Getaaaaa..._'

A mental sigh of resignation reached him, and Goku grinned manically at the remote, immediately repressed fondness he detected behind it.

'_Here, have mine_' Vegeta offered with a long-suffering look, handing out the biggest sandwich from the plate resting beside him on the cushions.

Goku didn't wait to be told twice and took at great bite out of it straight from the prince's hand. A feeling of shock and amazement reached him through the mental link he was keeping with Vegeta, before the older saiyan clamped it shut forcefully. The mental surprise was echoed by a small gasp that drew everyone else's attention away from the movie.

His friends' shock, however, was something that reached Goku only dimly. His attention was monopolized by Vegeta's tense, motionless pose, still keeping the food within the younger saiyan's mouth range. A strangely intense look and flushed cheeks made it clear that what was happening meant something.

Easily guessing it must be a saiyan thing, Goku tried to think what it could mean. Vegeta was the prince of all saiyans, like he was fond of repeating at any given opportunity, and he was now eating out of the prince's hands... It couldn't be something very intimate, or Vegeta would have retracted his hand by now. Goku almost yelled in shock as the idea formed in his mind. It must be a sort of formal recognition of his value as warrior, or something like that.

Suddenly, the Earth raised saiyan found his heart hammering in his chest. The mind link was gone, so he had to resort to words again, but he found that they fell short for the emotion he wanted to convey.

"Vegeta..." he whispered breathlessly.

The group had completely forgotten the movie and everyone was staring in bewilderment at the odd scene. Goku had adjusted his position to face Vegeta completely, and was at that point practically kneeling in front of the older saiyan. The two were staring wonderingly at one another and Goku's face hovered scant inches from Vegeta's hand. The prince's voice was rough with emotion when he spoke.

"Kakaroth... do you realize what it is that you're doing?" he asked.

Goku had no certainties to go by. After his fusion with Vegeta had come undone inside Majin Buu's body, he hadn't been able to retain any of the prince's memories, but certain feelings that were not his own had lingered. One of these feelings was not exactly loneliness, but a sense of isolation that was somehow intermixed with Vegeta's resentment towards him. Instinctively, Goku felt that it if he could not participate in the moment, the wall between him and Vegeta that was slowly coming down would be raised back up and remain there forever.

"I think so" he found himself replying. "May... may I?"

Bulma watched her husband's features in amazement. He smiled so rarely, it was always something to behold, but to see him smile at Goku was downright eerie. Her breath caught as she understood that there was a solemnity to the moment that no one but the two saiyans grasped entirely.

"In that case... to your heart's content, Kakaroth" Vegeta sighed in reply.

Given leave, Goku ate the contents of the entire plate out of the older saiyan's hand as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Only when he was done, and their eyes met again, a dreadful awkwardness set in, making them blush and look away.

"My... look at me, I ate all yours" Goku laughed embarrassedly. "I'll get you some more, okay?"

The prince's minute nod was all the encouragement Goku needed to leave the room. He didn't feel like trying to explain to the others something that even he had trouble understanding. He only knew that what had happened was very, very important for some reason. He hoped Vegeta wouldn't be mad about being left to face the music.

Vegeta, however, was experiencing a deep-seated contentment he seldomly felt, if not in his connection with his Woman or his Brat. Rationally, he realized that Kakaroth had not acted with a conscious awareness of the meaning of his gestures, but even on pure instinct some of it had probably reached the younger warrior.

His right hand still felt searing hot in the places where Kakaroth's lips had brushed against his skin. Perhaps, if someone as pure as the Earth-raised saiyan was willing to eat from them, some of the dirt on his hands had faded away? It was a nice idea, of the kind he didn't get very often and was reluctant to dismiss.

"What has just happened here, Vegeta?" Bulma asked, unable to be silent a second longer, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"It happened that a careless gesture did what had not been done with intent in over two hundred years" he explained wistfully.

The look of puzzlement on everyone's face just deepened at the obscure comment, and Vegeta resigned himself to elaborate.

"The prince of all saiyans has just knighted a third-class warrior. You are now the mate of an elite saiyan" he told Chichi. "Bear yourself with the pride that befits the position. His new status extends to his entire family, which is now a part of my own."

The assembled group broke from silence into exclamations of amazement and concitated chatter.

"But does it still hold true, if you didn't mean to do it?" Crilin asked.

"I could have retracted my hand when I realized what I was doing, if I so wished" Vegeta replied with a shrug.

"One day, when you're feeling like it, I'd love to hear more about this and other saiyan traditions, Vegeta" Gohan said eagerly. "It never felt like the right time to ask, but... well, I'm curious, you know."

The prince's expression hardened again.

"What does any of it matter to you?" he asked gravely. "My planet has been dust for over thirty years now, it happened long before you were born."

"Maybe he's asking because evidently it matters to you" Bulma rejoined sternly, "and it matters to Goku, too. I'm sure I've never seen him like he was just a minute ago. He was completely entranced with what was happening."

"Do you still miss your planet, Vegeta? " Yamcha asked. "I mean, after all, you were just a kid back then, so many years have passed..."

"If I yanked off your arm, how many years would it take for you to stop missing it?" Vegeta asked academically.

"Uhm, sorry... that was a stupid question" the scarred fighter apologized, turning slightly green at the vivid image those words painted.

"No, it was not" Vegeta countered mildly. "It was phrased uncorrectly, however. What you meant to ask is whether or not I can't stop the fucking nostalgia fest and just be content with what I have. The answer to that question is that if, in my present... contentment, I allowed myself to forget all the saiyans that died on that day of thirty years ago, then I do not deserve anything of what I have."

Still in the daze Vegeta's declaration had placed her in, Chichi forgot all about the enmity she felt for the man who had tried to kill her husband and said what she felt was natural and obvious.

"You were six years old, there was nothing you could have done. It was not your responsibility."

Vegeta smiled thinly.

"That's very nice of you to say, but the truth is that the privilege of being a member of the royal house comes with a price. If I could not save my people, I should have died with them, child or not. Of course, I'm not unhappy to be alive, but if I let their memory fade I wouldn't be able to look myself in the mirror anymore."

It's difficult enough as it is, Vegeta omitted to say.

In that moment, Goku reappeared on the doorway, with a serving plate loaded of the most improbable variety of food. Everyone suddenly found the necessity to feign engrossment in the film that had kept playing unheeded in the last few minutes.

"I didn't know what you wanted, 'Geta" Goku said with an embarrassed grin, approaching the older saiyan and sitting in front of him on the floor again, this time in a cross-legged position.

"It's a wonder you found the fridge at all, you moron" the prince replied, taking the plate. "Fruit salad with sausages, really!"

"Uhm, sorry..."

"Nevermind, I suppose it's the thought that counts."

The relieved grin he received in reply was a solar, honest thing, filled with affection and respect. The prince of all saiyans sent a thought to the souls of his long lost people, praying that they would forgive his weakness for accepting the recognition he could no longer deny he needed, no matter how mysterious its origins were.

Goku, from his side, felt that perhaps he should say something meaningful, but speeches had never been his forte, so he tentatively reached out to the prince's mind again. The mute request of contact was accepted, and the link established again.

'_I don't know what I should say'_ he admitted with a mental blush, '_but please, pretend that I said it?_'

'_The only pledges that are required for the occasion concern things that you have already fulfilled more than abundantly. Welcome to the elite, Kakaroth. It doesn't mean anything, with our planet gone, but it's the meaning of the rite we involuntarily performed._'

'_It means a great deal to me, 'Geta._'

'_I wonder how I failed to notice it before_' Vegeta sent over the link, accompaning the words with a mental sigh. '_It means a great deal to me also, Kakaroth._'

'_You called me moron again, though_' Goku lamented, with a pout.

'_Becoming an elite didn't suddenly make brain cells form in the empty box you wear for a head, Kakaroth. But I can call you Lord Moron of Earth, if it'll make you feel better._'

When the two saiyans simultaneously burst into laughter, their friends and family turned away again from the movie they were only pretending to watch, at that point.

"What's so funny?" Crilin asked, smiling without knowing why.

"Nothing" Vegeta replied with a mysterious smirk. "I just assigned a house name to the newest saiyan elite."


End file.
